A family were forced to flee their home after yobs threw a firework at it for a second year running.
The family from Formby are fearing for their safety after their home was damaged for the second year in a row, with the most recent coming on Friday, October 8.
The family, who wish to stay anonymous, have had fireworks thrown at their home each year as they live near Duke Street Park in Formby.
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One person from the family told the ECHO : "It's been constant for about three years and it's getting earlier and earlier each year. This year it started around September 10 and it will go on past bonfire night.
"At one point this year it was every night and they're out of control these kids. And I mean kids. Some of them are look as though they're in primary school, if not, very early secondary.
"They have no idea what they're doing. What they do is they throw a firework and see which way it lands or they'll split off into opposite ends of the park and fire a firework into the crowd and then they'll fire one back.
"Apart from them being young, what's also weird is that there's so many girls there. The last few years it's just been lads but this time round there's loads of girls involved. Probably a 50/50 mix of girls and boys.
"We're quite an obvious target because we're just opposite one of the entrances. It'll start with fireworks, then it'll be eggs for the buses and cars that drive past and then it's bricks.
"We saw a brick go through a windscreen last Friday night. That's when it gets scary. They did the bus stop as well. What they do is they stand just out of sight on the main road and then they just step out, throw the brick up in the air and it lands on the windscreen.
"Then the windscreen is in bits. On Friday the car ended up 90 degrees to the road because it skidded off and they then chased down the road after the car.
"There's like 30 of them, what's one person going to do against 30 kids? They're just feral. I don't know what on Earth goes through their minds."
The family often wonder what's happening on their doorstep, especially when fireworks go between houses. The noise is compared to a "bomb".
They said: "We had damage to our house. I know quite a lot of people have but we had the police involved last year because of the amount of damage we had.
"It happened on three separate occasions. Then we had it damaged again on Friday night. We had guttering smashed because these fireworks are pretty big things that they send off. They all have little chunks of what looks like concrete in them, I assume to keep them up but when that hits something it breaks it.
"We've had cracks in the windows and scars on the windows where they explode on the windows. Then we've had guttering smashed as well which we've just had fixed.
"We have a puppy and she's petrified. We have kids and they're all petrified. We have to move to the back of the house whenever it happens which is pretty much most evenings so we're all trapped in the back.
"You can't open the windows to get fresh air. It's horrific. When the fireworks go between two houses it sounds like a bomb's gone off because there's nowhere for the sound to go so when it goes between two houses you get the his almighty racket.
"You just think 'what happened?'. It is really badly impacted me mental health wise. It's catastrophic."
They have even been told in the past to take a holiday in the autumn, when there is a spike in incidents, by a community officer.
They told the ECHO: "The first year this all happened, towards mischief night the police came round because there was so much trouble.
"They came round all the houses in the neighbourhood. They sent a community officer round to speak to everyone. The woman said to me 'have you thought of going away in October?' and I thought what a ridiculous suggestion.
"But then we ended up going away because it was the easiest thing to do, We took the school holidays and went to stay in a Travelodge because it was better than the worry of being at home.
"It was ludicrous but in hindsight it saved us a lot of mental anguish because when we're here we can't do anything about the trouble. We had to survey the damage when we got back.
"It's got to the point where we've stopped ordering takeaways to stop putting the delivery drivers at risk because otherwise you've got that on your conscience as well."
Police are now looking to retake control of the area, with an increased police presence following a taxi being bricked and a bus stop being smashed.
The area has seen problems over the last month, with two dispersal zones introduced in the area in consecutive weeks as a result of anti-social behaviour.
Community Policing Sergeant Andrew Dentith said: “We simply will not tolerate the appalling anti-social behaviour we saw in Duke Street on Friday night.
“We understand how concerning such incidents are for residents and I’d like to assure our community that we are doing all we can to find those responsible and stepping up high-visibility patrols in the area.
“Going forward, we also have a number of options where we can take to tackle such behaviour, including further dispersal zones and plain clothes officers on patrol. Where we receive reports of anti-social behaviour we will not hesitate to take action.
"I'd also ask the parents or guardians of our young people know where they are and ensure they are not involved in a such incidents.
"When appropriate, we will speak with parents and guardians if we suspect that young people in their care are involved, but we need to work together to prevent such incidents happening.
“If you were in the Duke Street area and witnessed any incidents or have captured any footage on mobile phone or dashcam them please contact us, directly, or anonymously through Crimestoppers. Any information you have could be vital to our enquiries.”
Anyone with any information on anti-social behaviour in their community can direct message @Merpol on Twitter, ‘Merseyside Police Contact Centre’ on Facebook or call 101 or @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555 111. Always call 999 if a crime is in progre
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